Author's Note: Chapter 2 at your service! And this will be different but similar to the game.
I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 2: Seeing Doubles.
Back with Alternate Sonic...
"Ugh..." Moaned Young Sonic as he found himself lying on his back, opening his eyes while regaining consciousness. The first thing he saw was...pure absolute whiteness. The lighter blue hedgehog slowly pushed himself up and placed a hand on his head. "Talk about a headache. That wasn't a fun ride."
But when the eleven year old hero looked around, his eyes widened in shock, confusion and nervousness. He glanced around at seeing nothing but just white. White everything. The air felt still and dead, cold and empty.
"Where am I? What is this place?" Young Sonic asked. As the young hedgehog stood up, he couldn't stop himself from rubbing his arms as he whimpered. "Brr...Chilly. Am I dead?"
The last thing he remembered was the black hole thingy with the giant monster from within, that it swallowed everything up including himself and...his separation with Tails. Eyes widening with a gasp, Young Sonic glanced around quickly to find any traces of his best friend.
"Tails? Tails!? Where are you, buddy? Say something! TAILS!" The young blue hedgehog cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, but all he heard was his voice echo. "Tails? Anybody? Hello?"
Now fearing for the worst and frightened of this place, Young Sonic decided to run and see if he could find someone, anyone, to heed his call. He didn't get too far as he noticed something that made the eleven year old skid to a stop. Palm trees and a hill that looked strangely familiar, except that something was wrong.
It was all white.
"What's going on? There's no way the Afterlife should look like this, right?" Young Sonic sweat-dropped, before noticing, much to his horror, a familiar figure in front of a trees of a entrance into the strange place. The figure of a familiar two-tailed fox, also white and statue-like. The young blue hedgehog felt his heart shatter in an instant.
"No...No, no! TAILS!" He screamed out, racing over to the still form of his newest little brother, desperately placing his hands onto his stone-state friend's shoulders but didn't want to shake him, fearing that he could easily and accidentally kill him by shattering the statue. "Tails! Tails, can ya' hear me!? C'mon, li'l bro! Please! It's me, Sonic!"
No response. The eleven year old didn't want to believe it, didn't want to accept it, but the cold, cruel reality of the situation began to engulf him as Young Sonic soon broke down into tears, hugging his 'dead' friend's form and screamed in agonized sorrow before simply crying his heart out. He blamed himself for not being able to protect the poor four year old kit, instantly regretting in having taken him home with him when he should've taken him somewhere else for his safety, and now had died, his life cut too short.
"Oh, Tails...I'm sorry...! I'm so sorry!" Young Sonic sobbed, and he could've sworn he heard himself scream but it was faint and he wasn't screaming even though he felt like he should since it was exactly what he felt like doing. He wanted his little brother back.
"Hello...Sonic?"
"Huh?" Young Sonic tearfully muttered upon hearing an unfamiliar angelic, female voice echo gently, and looked behind him to see a glowing red orb gently descend and float. He blinked in confusion. "Who're you?"
"My name is Tikal." Tikal replied, sounding a bit confused herself, before she came to realization and muttered. "You are a different Sonic the Hedgehog, but only in slight appearance."
"Different...Sonic the Hedgehog? Wait a minute, how'd you know my name?" The young blue hedgehog asked, reluctantly moving away from Tails. "What's going on? What's happened to my friend here? Where am I? Is this heaven or something?"
"Something has happened, for the very strange beast has engulfed everything of your world's existence, slowly merging with two others, one being my own. Your friend is still alive, Sonic. But he is trapped within that state, as are all of the others, save for some." Tikal explained.
Young Sonic scratched his head, trying to register in what the floating orb was talking about. "Lemme get this straight. The giant monster that appeared outta nowhere is behind in whatever's going on, and if Tails is still alive but stuck as a statue, then I'm not dead? And there are other people stuck like this but others are okay like me?"
"Yes. You and the Sonic I know, the one who knows me, have survived this curse. Only you and he can save us all." The voice of the echidna, which the young hedgehog didn't know of yet, answered.
"Another Sonic?" The young blue hedgehog gaped in shock, before realizing, dumbfounded. "Well, that kinda explains how why you called me a different Sonic. But how can that be?"
Then, realizing he was wasting time in his curiosity over his mysterious other self and decided to worry about that later, Young Sonic shook his head and went onto more urgent matters, like saving Tails and figuring out how to solve this problem.
"Never mind. Please, Tikal. Tell me! How do I save Tails?" He tearfully pleaded.
"Enter the pathway of this zone, and find the Chaos Emerald that will restore your friend, but that Emerald will only be able to restore him and part of this place." Tikal explained.
Feeling hope and determined to save his best friend/little brother, and find out what's going on, Young Sonic wiped away his tears and nodded, giving the orb a thumbs up. "Leave it to me, lady! I'll be back before you know it!"
"Be careful. This journey will be dangerous." She cautioned.
"Oh, come on! I've stopped Ro-butt-nik's giant robots and trashed his Death Egg last week. This'll be a piece of cake!" He reassured with a smirk.
"You really are Sonic of another world. Good luck. The fate of the world is in both your hands." The spirital orb replied, before she flew away and vanished into the endless white sky.
Young Sonic watched her leave before shrugging, "Dunno what she's talkin' about, but I got a feeling I'll find out soon enough. Gotta go fast!"
He was about to take his leave when he turned his gaze to Young Tails and sighed. The young blue hedgehog carefully patted his friend on the head and kissed it gently, whispering. "It'll be okay, Tails. I promise. Hang in there, li'l buddy. I'll be back before you know it."
He could've sworn that he heard the two-tailed fox's voice just now echo, which sounded like, 'Thanks, Sonic...Good luck!'
The young blue hedgehog nodded before quickly taking off through the white trees. He didn't know what to expect, but he was determined to find the Chaos Emerald. But as Young Sonic ran through, he noticed a white hole as he emerged through the trees, which he had to shield his eyes with his hand. When he emerged and the light faded, the eleven year old hedgehog skid to a stop as he found himself in a completely familiar place.
"Huh?" He gasped in confusion and shock, taking in the sights of Green Hill Zone like it hasn't been attacked at all. "Hey, I'm back home? What's going on? This just keeps getting weirder and weirder."
All of the sudden, a metallic sound caught his attention in front of him and as the young blue hedgehog gazed on where it was coming from up ahead, to his annoyance, a group of familiar Badnik robots began charging straight towards him.
"Grr...I knew Robotnik was behind this! Who else would go and mess with something that's too dangerous to control but that clown?" Young Sonic growled softly, before immediately Spin Dashing into the Bee-like robots, smashing one in an instant before taking about two more after a couple of hits.
He was surprised that it was easier than he expected, before deciding that he was just getting used to it. Having no idea why was suddenly sent back home but figuring that a Chaos Emerald had to be around here somewhere, the young blue hedgehog immediately raced onward the familiar plains, running up and down a loop before jumping up high and landing on a narrow grassy path which was perfectly fine by him. Young Sonic was cheering on happily despite the desperation in saving Young Tails, but as long as he had the hope of restoring his best buddy, he wanted to enjoy himself at the same time.
"This is definitely better than that creepy, cold white place! Just wish Tails was with me right now." He said to himself, running past an open cave next to him, but blinked in surprise when he heard...himself whooping? "Huh?"
Young Sonic glanced to his right down below for the source of the voice that sounded like him but a bit far off. His eyes widened in surprise at not only he saw a grind rail which he wanted to try out but didn't have the balance yet, but he saw someone actually grinding along in the exact same speed as he was going. A cobalt blue figure that had long quills like he did, white gloves, and...the exact same white and red shoes.
"What the?" He gaped in disbelief, and gasped when he saw a giant fish robot aiming towards the other figure. Young Sonic then saw the slightly darker blue person, another hedgehog he correctly guessed, duck and still grind his way towards the other side. While the young blue hedgehog focused on his path ahead, he kept his eye on the other figure who reached the other side while the robot missed him and ended up smashing into the wall below the cliff and destroying itself.
Young Sonic couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity of the moving metal. "Loser!"
His path then separated him from the other person and the young blue hedgehog ran down the hill with a wide excited smirk, running along the wall only to hear something behind him and looked over his shoulder to see a larger Bug-Bot coming straight towards him. Yelping, Young Sonic moved to the side to avoid a laser that would've vaporized him and knew that he couldn't attack unless he turned around, but he was in a major hurry. So he focused on running through a hole in the wall into another cave, where the robot, like it's fish counterpart, ended up about to crash into it due to being too big.
As he glanced at it again, the eleven year old smirked before pulling his lower eyelid of his eye and gave it a raspberry just as the robot smashed into the rock and destroyed itself.
"That oughta teach ya' to look where you're going!" Young Sonic chuckled.
Eventually he reached the exit and found himself in where he first discovered the Special Zone on his first adventure, and to his surprise lying on the ground was the familiar green diamond shaped emerald. Glowing as though waiting for him, the young blue hedgehog blinked before approaching it slowly.
"Huh. That was easy. Is this...the real Chaos Emerald, or is it a fake?" He wondered aloud, before glancing around suspiciously. "This is better not be a trick."
While it looked like a real Chaos Emerald, Young Sonic suddenly wasn't certain. Even so, he wanted to save Young Tails, and decided to see what would happen. The young blue hedgehog carefully reached out and picked it up, gazing at it thoughtfully. Almost instantly he felt the familiar pressence of the Chaos Energy, but somehow this one felt so...otherworldly. Like this wasn't his Chaos Emerald.
"That's strange. Why does this feel kinda off?" Young Sonic muttered, before the green jewel in his hand glowed brightly which soon spread out across the area. He let out a scream and for a split second thought he was tricked and that Tikal worked for Robotnik, and quickly squeezed his eyes shut bracing himself to be teleported to somewhere he didn't want to be.
But as the light faded and he hesitantly opened his eyes, half-expecting to be sent to a cell in Robotnik's latest secret Base that he felt in just a week which would've been a world record for the villain, the young blue hedgehog softly gasped as he found himself back to where he started; the strange world of whiteness. Hearing an odd tingling behind him, he turned around and blinked in surprise when he saw colour sparkle onto the trees and rocks all around the entrance.
"...Okay. Now I'm scared." Young Sonic gulped with a sweat-drop. "What kind of a place is this?"
Seeing that he wasn't about to get an answer and instantly remembered Young Tails, the eleven year old hedgehog turned back to him and was utterly dismayed to find his four year old best friend still in a statue-like state. His heart breaking as nothing happened, and not knowing how to use the Chaos Emerald, assuming it's the real one he'd found, to revive the two-tailed fox, Young Sonic broke down into tears and hugged the statue of his adoptive little brother, crying. However, when the emerald in his hand gently touched Young Tails' back, he heard another tingling sound coming from underneath them.
Blinking tearfully in confusion, Young Sonic looked and to his amazement and instant happiness, sparkles and colour began to form and return onto the four year old kit. In at least a few seconds, Tails was almost instantly back to normal, yellow-orange and white fur, red and white shoes, the younger Mobian groaned before opening his eyes. He blinked in confusion, and glanced around his surroundings, until the sight of his best friend/older brother made his young heart leap as well, realizing he was in the hedgehog's arms.
"Sonic!" Young Tails exclaimed happily.
"Tails! You're okay!" Young Sonic replied, and hugged his little brother tighter while the latter hugged him back, the two laughing happily and in relief, tears leaking and falling. "Oh, Tails! I'm so sorry...! I love you so much, buddy!"
"I love you too, Sonic!" His two-tailed friend said, and giggled when the older Mobian gave him another gentle kiss on the head.
They stayed like that for a long while before the two reunited friends reluctantly let go and Young Sonic playfully ruffled the four year old's head, making him giggle.
"Whew! Thanks, Sonic. I thought I was done for! Floating without a body in a black limbo!" Young Tails sighed, before shivering and rubbed his arms. "I'm going to have nightmares for weeks."
"What happened? How'd you end up like a monument or whatever?" The young blue hedgehog asked, concerned.
The young fox shrugged, shaking his head. "I dunno. The last thing I can remember was that giant monster that swallowed us up, being separated from you and then everything went black, like I was passing out."
"Hmmm...Well, this place sure is the creepiest I've ever seen, and I'm willing to guess that fat-head of Ro-butt-nik has something to do with it. I can feel it. If he can try and steal the Chaos Emeralds, then what are the odds of him taking control of that thing and trapping us and part of Green Hill here?" Young Sonic said with a frown, glancing around the white space again with narrowed eyes.
"Yeah..." Young Tails muttered in agreement, even though something about this seemed far too strange for Robotnik to handle on his own. He then suggested. "Maybe we can figure out what's going on if we split up and look around."
Even though the eleven year old was hesitant in leaving behind his friend, he knew that he was right, because standing here wasn't going to solve anything. So with a nod and a promise that he'll be back soon, Young Sonic dashed off in one direction while Young Tails decided to investigate the entrance of Green Hill Zone.
It seemed to take a little forever, but when the young blue hedgehog ran through the endless white area, something colourful and familiar was shown ahead of him. He skid to a stop in a good distance away and his eyes widened in shock and confusion.
"What? I'm back where I started? Did I just go around in circles?" The eleven year old hedgehog blinked, dumbfounded. But his confusion only grew as suddenly he spotted two extremely familiar figures in front of the entrance, seemingly hugging each other and one of them speaking and then he felt a flash of deja vu.
Silently edging closer without being seen despite that there was nowhere for him to take cover, Young Sonic was shocked that one of them was a taller blue hedgehog, a bit slimmer and older, maybe by four or five years, more cobalt blue then sky-blue, and the other was a shorter yellow fox also with two tails, but taller than Young Tails, maybe about the same height as the young blue hedgehog himself. What also caught him off-guard was that their eyes were completely different.
The blue hedgehog's irises were green and black, and taller two-tailed fox's were cerulean blue like the sky. But there was no denying that the gloves and shoes were exactly the same, and if Young Sonic were to guess, they were...
"Thanks, Sonic. I thought I was dead! Floating without a body in a black limbo!" The taller fox thanked the tall blue hedgehog, before shuddering at the thought, rubbing his arms. "I'm going to have nightmares for weeks."
"What the-!? Tails!? Did he just...was he talking to me, or is that..." Young Sonic gaped in shock and disbelief, before Tikal's words echoed in his mind.
"You and the Sonic I know, the one who knows me, have survived this curse. Only you and he can save us all."
"That blue guy...he's the other Sonic? No way...! He looks older than me! What the heck is goin' on?" The young blue hedgehog asked himself, and began to wonder if this was some kind of a crazy dream. Deciding that he needed to know better, he kept himself silent and listened in on the other Sonic and other Tails' conversation.
"Is it me, or does this place look awfully familiar?" The older Sonic asked, gazing at the entrance of Green Hill.
"Maybe a little." The older Tails shook his head, then added thoughtfully. "But it looks like something sucked all the life and colour out of it. Totally strange."
"No stranger than rescuing genies in magic books, having a clone with a soul and heart of their own made out of my quills and feelings and a giant monster of darkness, or saving aliens in an Interstellar Amusement Park." Sonic pointed out with a shrug, frowning worriedly as he took a couple steps closer to the entrance before pausing. "I'm more concerned about finding our friends."
'No stranger than having two of me and my best buddy, and a red talking girl orb who knew about all of this, either.' Young Sonic couldn't help but think in agreement. 'And more friends? Who else got trapped in here?'
Back with Sonic and Tails...
"Yeah, me too. I'm sorry that your birthday party got ruined." Tails sighed worriedly and apologetically.
"Hey, c'mon, bro. You didn't ruin anything. It was that giant monster who arrived uninvited, wrecked all of your hard work and kidnapping everybody and turning you into a statue." Sonic reassured with a soft smile, giving him a thumbs up and a wink. "When I see that guy again, I'm gonna give it a good hard clobbering as an exchange gift."
"Do you think Eggman is behind this?" The nine year old wondered.
The sixteen hear old shook his head with a frown. "No, Eggman would've if he was still alive and figured this out. Someone else is behind it, or maybe it was just a random evil alien attack or something. Plus, Yacker's Mom ate him whole before I turned her back to normal, remember? Nobody can survive digestion."
The two-tailed fox shrugged sheepishly. "Good point."
"Don't worry, before I met up with you, I thought I was dead and end up meeting him around here. It's too bad I can't blame him for this mess this time." The blue hedgehog laughed lightly with a shrug of his own.
While the two Mobians were talking, Sonic's younger, alternate self kept on listening to their conversation and was surprised with some of the things he was hearing.
"A giant monster brought them here too? And ruined the other me's birthday? And I thought I had it bad when I got here, but if it'd been me, it'd be some birthday. And who's Eggman?" Young Sonic whispered to himself, before he realized that it reminded him of Robotnik and couldn't help but think. "Come to think of it, Ro-butt-nik does look like a giant talking Egg."
That thought made him snicker and he tried not to laugh out loud. The young blue hedgehog then said to himself, "Maybe I should start calling him Eggman from now on. The look on his face would be great!"
As the younger Sonic tried very hard not to get their attention over Robotnik's 'new' nickname, Tails then noticed something up ahead and pointed it out to Sonic. "Hey, Sonic! Over there, in the distance."
Both Sonics(unknowingly to the older Sonic) glanced up and saw what the two-tailed fox was pointing at. White dull buildings that looked like they were made from metal stood out and almost blended within the complete white world they were trapped in. The two hedgehogs each thought the buildings looked familiar, but neither one or the nine year old were certain since it was hard to tell with it having no colour.
"They're like buildings, but they're weird." Tails continued.
"They look familiar to me." Sonic said thoughtfully, "That might be a good place to check out."
Deciding to investigate, the hero of Mobius adjusted his gloves while saying to his best friend/little brother. "I'll be back soon!"
The teenage hedgehog then dashed off towards his destination as the two-tailed fox watched him leave. Unaware to both of them, the younger Sonic's eyes widened in shock at just how fast his older other self was running.
"Whoa! He runs fast just like me!" Young Sonic softly exclaimed, before frowning a little despite that seeing another version of him being fast was way past cool and then decided to check it out, unaware that he was automatically running for a better look before pausing...right next to Tails who noticed him and his blue eyes widened at him.
"Whoa!" The nine year old kit yelped, which made Young Sonic jump and turned to face him, realizing what just happened.
"AH!" The younger hedgehog cried out. 'Did I just automatically walk up to him? Oops.'
"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said soon! I thought you already left." Tails remarked in surprise, before blinking in confusion as he got a good look at this Sonic. Unlike his best friend, this one, while looking the same, was shorter, younger, about the same height as the older hedgehog was back when he'd been eleven years old, his blue fur was a bit lighter, his quills were sticking up a bit, and his eyes...the eyes were black instead of emerald green.
"Uh...I did?" Young Sonic replied lamely, scratching the back of his head before realizing what he just said and felt like slapping himself on the face. "N-never mind! See ya!"
Without waiting for a response, Young Sonic ran off quickly to try and find his older self as well as investigate the white buildings, leaving the bewildered Tails behind to his thoughts.
'Wait a second...' The young kit thought to himself. If Sonic had just ran off, and then returned looking slightly different...
Lost in his thoughts, Tails didn't hear the familiar repelling of his own twin-tails behind him before the sound faded. Nor was he aware of his own younger, alternate self, who not seeing him yet but also noticed the two Sonics, was now standing right behind him to the older fox's left. Right until they said the same thing at the same time.
"This is really weird." The two Tails said, before realizing to themselves that their voices...sounded all echoey. "Huh?"
Tails looked to his left and saw, to his shock and utter disbelief...was himself, but younger, just like when he was four years old...and those eyes...no trace of colour except black, but rather than being a copy of himself or even a robot, the younger Tails looked to be just as shocked and disbelieved as he was. Both young foxes stared at each other with wide eyes, speechless for a very long while before they did the one thing that came out of their mouths.
They screamed.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Tails and Younger Tails screamed in unison, their voices echoing through out the entire strange world. The two then pointed at each other in bewilderment. "You look just like me! But younger/older and-and your eyes are different!"
Then came the awkward silence, which would've been added with crickets chirping in the background if there were any in this place.
"I've gotta be dreaming. Maybe this whole thing is a nightmare, and I'll wake up in my bed, plan to sneak out of the house to meet with the others and set up Sonic's birthday party without him finding out for real." Tails said to himself, placing a hand to his face as he squeezed his eyes shut, having difficulty in accepting the fact that he's standing in front of his younger, slightly different self.
"...And I was just thinking this was a dream too, except it's only just my first week in living with Sonic." Young Tails groaned, rubbing his eyes to make doubly sure before looking again, before shaking his head in disbelief. "But...I think this is real."
"I guess that clears that up." The older fox scratched the back of his head, before blinking in realization. "Wait, if you're me, and I saw Sonic before seeing a smaller him approach..."
"And I saw a taller Sonic before that..." The younger fox added and trailed off, realization also hitting his young mind.
The two came to the same conclusion and chorused in further disbelief. "There are two of Sonic!"
Meanwhile, unaware of the double dilemma Tails was facing and just as unaware of his own alternate, younger self secretly following him, Sonic was just arriving at the white buildings his best friend/little brother had pointed out and came to a stop at it's entrance. As he did, he spotted something right near it and his eyes widened, softly gasping as the statue of a familiar pink, or um, former, pink hedgehog stood, all stunned and frozen.
"...Amy!" The blue hedgehog softly cried out, almost immediately approaching the trapped form of his self-proclaimed girlfriend, his heart aching again in such a state, though thanks to Tikal, he knew that she was still alive. "Amy...Tikal was right. Almost everybody's stuck like this."
Sonic gently caressed the frozen Amy's cheek, guilt rising as the unfairness dawned onto him. "And I'm the only one along with some other guy who avoided it."
The sixteen year old bit his lip, remembering how he failed to prevent her and Tails from being kidnapped and turned to stone by the horrible monster that trapped him and everyone else in this place...which he began to feel like that it was some sort of prison. That thought made him feel worse, and scared, but he fought down the latter feeling for the sake of everybody who needed him, now more than ever, and mysterious rectanglar Chaos Emerald like crystals were one of the many clues in solving all this.
Suddenly remembering the crystal he found in Green Hill that he used to revive Tails, Sonic quickly pulled it out from his quills and gazed at it thoughtfully. He didn't know how many there were, but maybe...
"Hmm...I wonder." He muttered to himself, and while the cobalt young hero had a feeling that the first thing the pink hedgehog would do was go all fan-girl on him again, he didn't want her or anyone else to be stuck like this any longer than they were forced to. Remembering what to do, Sonic held the green crystal in front of Amy's statue form. While the glow was suddenly duller which made him worry suddenly, the result was thankfully the same.
Sparkles of colour lit up from bottom to top, covering Amy until she was successfully and fully restored to her normal self. She blinked in confusion and gasped as though waking up from a nightmare.
"Huh? Hey, where am I?" She asked, looking around...right until she saw the handsomely familiar blue hero she had fallen in love with and her eyes sparkled in relief and happiness.
"Hey, Amy. You okay-WAH!" Sonic cried out when he suddenly found himself trapped in a tight hug and gripped within Amy's arms, which made him immediately try to push her off. "A-Amy! Let me go! I'm happy to see you too, but y-you're squashing me here!"
"My hero! Oh, my sweet, brave, blue and super fast hedgehog!" The pink hedgehog squealed enthusiastically, ignoring him and nuzzled her head onto his chest, before letting him go(much to his relief) and continued. "You saved me, Sonic! I was afraid I'd never be able to flirt with you again!"
That only made the teenage hero look away with an exasperated groan as he rolled his eyes and gazed at the white sky, thinking to himself. 'Why me...?'
"Amy, what did I say about you flirting with me?" Sonic sighed, facepalming himself. "I've asked you to not go all fan-girl on me months ago."
"I know, I just can't help it." She replied. "I'm just so happy to see you! Do you have any idea what it's like being stuck like that, like you're in some kind of a horrible place of nothing but black?"
"Vaguely, 'cause Tails told me the similar thing earlier and I really don't wanna find out. I thought he was dead before Tikal gave me an advice."
"Huh? Tikal? She's here too?" Amy blinked, surprised and horrified on what she heard about Tails.
Sonic nodded and explained on what the spiritual echidna princess told him, how he ventured into a familiar place to find the special crystal that revived both Tails and Amy and how the former pointed out this place to him where he found the latter and used it to restore her to normal.
"Wow." The pink hedgehog murmured when her 'boyfriend' held out the crystal. "It kind of looks like a Chaos Emerald, only it's shaped like a rectangle."
"It kinda feels like a Chaos Emerald, too. Whatever it is, it's very important and whoever's behind this, I got a feeling that monster didn't just appear out of nowhere all on it's own." The blue hedgehog said. "I can't explain it, but it's too big of a coincidence to suddenly appear and attack without being able to talk."
"It can't be Eggman, because he's gone." Amy pointed out.
"I know. Either way, I'm gonna find that giant guy and whoever it is that brought it to our world and kidnapped everybody, and give them a piece of my mind!" Sonic agreed and declared, then gazed at the crystal again, adding. "Think I'm gonna have to find more of these if I'm gonna save everybody else. If I use this again too soon for someone else, it might lose it's power more quickly and I can't risk that."
His self-proclaimed girlfriend growled at the memory of the monster, her eyes burning with rage which made him flinch in fright with a sweat-drop. "I wanna give that thing a piece of my mind with my Hammer for doing this and ruining all our hard work for setting up your birthday party!"
"S-Sure, Ames. W-we can worry about my birthday later, 'kay?" The blue hedgehog stuttered, waving his hands to try and get to calm down, hoping that she wouldn't take her anger out on him even though he didn't do anything wrong.
She then sighed and quickly looked upset, tears beginning to form. "I'm so sorry, Sonic. We all wanted you to have the best birthday ever..."
The blue hedgehog felt sad, feeling guilty for his friends blaming themselves over something that they didn't do at all. First Tails and now Amy. Well, the young hero of Mobius was pretty certain Knuckles, Espio, Vector and Rouge wouldn't feel that way, Cream and Cheese and maybe Charmy, they probably would. Big, well, he'd be more confused than anything else.
"Don't blame yourself." Sonic gently placed his hands onto her shoulders to comfort Amy who glanced up at him, and he smiled softly. "The fact that you guys even went through the effort and having really surprised me for once really made me happy. That in and of itself was one of the best birthday presents I could ever ask for."
He then sighed as his smile faded, and whispered. "It's my fault. I couldn't stop that thing from taking you and everybody else, and I somehow managed to avoid in being turned into a statue. Dunno how or why, but that's no excuse. I'm deeply sorry, Amy."
"Sonic...How can it be your fault?" Amy asked tearfully.
"Because I couldn't save you, or Tails, or everybody else...! Now we're stuck here and our only clue is these crystals...I hate to admit it, but...I'm scared. I thought that...that Mobius would finally be in real peace after Eggman died." Sonic confessed, struggling to hold back his emotions for once and looked away. "But I was wrong, since now this happened."
"Now, what did I say about blaming yourself over something that you didn't do on purpose?" The pink hedgehog gently scolded him, even though her heart broke over how her 'boyfriend' was feeling, adding gently with a soft smile. "You did try, and you saved me and Tails, so it's not too late to save everybody else. Plus, we all thought our lives would be better since that egg-shaped creep got eaten. None of us knew about that monster or where it came from."
"Yeah...You're right." The blue hedgehog sighed, running a hand through his quills, realizing that he was about to do what he ended up doing five months ago, and he hadn't even been even the slightest responsible for what's happening now this time. Nor did he learn of this or the origins of the monster. Same how he didn't know of Dark Gaia, or Light Gaia, or even Chaos until, well, Eggman happened. Except this time the evil scientist wasn't behind this situation.
"If anybody can save the day and stop this kind of evil, it's you." She added.
"Which is what I'm gonna do. I promise, when this is all over and we go home, we'll reschedule the party." Sonic declared, feeling his confidence and determination once again take over.
Amy giggled, "Sonic, you shouldn't have to be involved in rescheduling your own birthday."
He just laughed, smirking. "Well, what if I want to? You know I'm not a fan of waiting. Plus the least I can do for you guys for setting it up for me is to help fix it."
"Always such a gentlemen." She smiled with a sigh, "And sometimes a big kid too."
"That's 'cause I'm all for excitement and fun. I'm tons of fun, you and Tails are heaps of fun, Knuckles is semi-fun, Sun is kinda the next lower of semi-fun, Shadow's second least fun, and Eggman's no fun at all." Sonic teased with a smug smirk. "Well, okay, beating him up and seeing him lose in a pathetic way had sometimes been fun when it wasn't too serious, but you know what I mean."
"So had watching Knuckles chase him around." Amy giggled, making her 'boyfriend' laugh over the memory.
"Well, I'm gonna investigate this place and see if I can bring back it's colours, and maybe find more of these crystals and find another clue on what's going on. Wait here, 'kay?" The blue hedgehog said, about to make his way into the entrance, but paused and turned back to the pink hedgehog with a soft and warm smile. "Amy?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks. For the party and making me feel better."
She just giggled, blushing and smiling cutely. "Always happy to help. Happy Birthday, Sonic."
Amy went up to him and while Sonic flinched with another sweat-drop, half-expecting another crushing hug, he was surprised for the second time today that all she did was gently giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. Once she was done, he couldn't help but actually blush that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was, and while being kissed wasn't that bad, most of the times it was too hyper on his self-proclaimed girlfriend's part. But this time, his heart was leaping a little, the softness of her lips actually felt really nice, and he found himself blush pink.
Sonic grinned sheepishly and he was pretty certain, much to his embarrassment, that his grin was also goofy-looking.
"You go, Sonic! I'll be cheering you on!" She cheered, trying to stop herself from laughing over how her 'boyfriend' was having this cute goofy expression on his face. It was adorable.
"Leave it to me!" He replied, quickly recovering and giving her his confident smirk, thumbs up and wink before dashing off into the entrance of the unusual buildings, while Amy waited outside, watching him go.
What the two teenage hedgehogs hadn't even realized was that their conversation was heard by Young Sonic who caught up but hidden himself just below the platform where Amy was waiting. Seeing the pink hedgehog made his eyes widen.
"Whoa...Another Amy too? Except she's wearing a red dress." The young blue hedgehog whispered to himself, adding with a slight shiver. "And she's gotten to the other me. Just hope my Amy hasn't been brought here."
Suddenly realizing what he just said, the eleven year old flinched in horror. "Wait a sec. My Amy? What'm I saying? I'm not that crazy in having a girlfriend yet! Her wanting me to marry her is a nightmare, and she's only eight while I'm only eleven. Ugh."
Deciding to forget about the horrors of the possible future and worry about the craziness of two of himself and two of Amy later, Young Sonic discovered another entrance in front of him and ran right into that, figuring that the Chaos Emeralds were his best chances in solving this problem and also to keep them out of Robotnik's hands. But just at the entrance of the portal, a familiar figure caught his attention and he skid to a stop after gasping in shock.
It was Amy; the Amy Rose he knew; wearing the green shirt, orange skirt, and blue shoes. Or at least she would've been in colour if it wasn't the fact that she was all statue like herself.
"Amy...! Not her too!" The young blue hedgehog whispered in disbelief, the sight of the young pink hedgehog like this race up to her before sighing. "Oh man. I have no idea how the other me managed to get the other you back to normal...Unless he's looking for the Chaos Emeralds as well."
Realizing that Sonic might have two Chaos Emeralds already, Young Sonic knew that he had to hurry to find the rest and then figure out what's going on. Maybe if he met up with his older, alternate self, and if they are like only slightly different in appearances and age, they could join forces to learn the truth of the monster and this has happened.
"First thing's first. I've gotta find the Chaos Emerald." He decided, turning to his self-proclaimed girlfriend and assured her. "Don't worry, Ames. I'll turn you back to normal! Leave this to me!"
With that thought in mind, Young Sonic dashed off into the portal with a promise to restore Young Amy back to normal.
Unaware to the two Sonics, and their friends, a figure of a green hedgehog in black leather jacket and sunglasses, about the same age as Sonic, was hiding behind a pole where Young Sonic had just entered having heard the whole thing; both from the sixteen year old hedgehog, and the eleven year old hedgehog.
"Well, this is turning out to be more interesting and complicated than I thought. A dude in blue that looks like me, and a smaller dude similar too. Each looking for both the Sol Emeralds as well as these 'Chaos Emeralds'. Except they're both heroic. How pathetic." The green hedgehog whispered to himself, snickering with an evil smirk and dark chuckle.
Standing straight from his leaning position of the pole, he emerged, revealing to be none other than Scourge the Hedgehog as he gazed at the portal where Young Sonic had entered.
"Looks like there is such a thing as an alternate universe. Two to be precise. Shame, really. But hey, that means the guy I found earlier is the evil self of Kinto-Butt and not his long lost twin brother like I thought he was. Time to go find my two new buddies and give those blue hedgehogs a welcome they'll never forget." Scourge said, before silently snapping his fingers as a black void opened up behind him and from within the same monster the two Sonics of the two Mobius appeared.
The beast leered at him as the evil hedgehog turned calmly at him and approached.
"Why don't you and I go find our newest friend, big guy? He has a bone to pick with his small enemy and what better way than to greet them in a surprise attack? Wouldn't you agree?" Scourge inquired with an evil grin.
His new alley just growled in response, but sank into the depths but it did hold out a hand towards him. The green hedgehog smirked before jumping on and allowed it to drag him into the portal until all three vanished, to secretly continue the evil plot and a surprise attack on both Sonic and his younger alternate self, both fully unaware of what they and their friends are about to face.
A/N: It seems that things are about to get more interesting, which shall be revealed hopefully in the next chapter(As well as hopefully more action). I know this story isn't as great as my previous ones, but I'm doing my best. Hopefully it will get better, hard to say.
See you later!
